The rhetoric of alienation and the fatuity of politics unfortunately prevail in the conversations about politics among the Bulgarian society. Democracy does not only mean to have formal institutions - a great variety of political parties a National Assembly, etc. Real democracy depends to a great extent on the frameworks used by the citizens for interpretation of the political world. It also depends on the sense put into the political action which takes place in front of our eyes. We still lack this sense, Bulgarian political expert Strahil Deliysky who lectures at the Saint Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia contends.

“If we use a metaphor of the IT field, we can make the following conclusion: there are two types of senses. The first one has an open-source code and the second sense has a locked code just like the computer software. We use programs with locked code without being able to change them in line with our personal preferences. The open-source code gives us the opportunity to put our own idea into the product by sharing the efforts of the others around us. So, there are two approaches towards the establishment of the collective sense. The first approach envisages the use of adopted ideological formulations and political myths which are usually enforced by the elite. This is the easy way, because it does not require any mental efforts. The second approach -the open-source code approach means to create a social and political sense with joined efforts freed from the habit constraint.”

Strahil Deliysky goes back to the beginning of the transition period in Bulgaria, in order to explain that due to the political doctrine of the neoliberalism, the radical market ideology managed to subdue the political field.

“The political decisions are becoming mainly a function of prevailing business interests, rather than of the public interest”, Bulgaria's political expert further says. “It turned out that the authorities who were elected in a democratic manner make their decisions to the interest of trans-national corporations, financial institutions and commercial organization, rather than to the interest of the sovereign. Their logics reads: What is good for the business is also good for people. However, this is not always true. The citizens have lost confidence in the state as a political body which regulates social conflicts. Thus, they have lost confidence in politics as a whole. However, it is not a Bulgarian phenomenon only. It is a systematic deficit. Within this context, the newly established civil society in Bulgaria has seemingly forgotten about one of its main functions - to monitor the functioning of the state and the market, to earn an independent space with regard to the political power and the market constraints.”

The change of the political system in Bulgaria and the search of identity were to a great extent accompanied with radical consumer individualism, Strahil Deliyski says and adds:

“The lack of perception of political entity and a common political goal brought the idea of individual survival to life. The supreme sense of this strategy is linked with possession. Here is the absurd point - the opportunity to make choices while purchasing is believed to be the biggest virtue of this system. Thus, we slowly start interpreting the political matter as consumers, rather than as citizens. The word I has become much more important than the word we, which hampers to a great extent the political communication. The consumer is a market being which determines his behavior on the basis of rational estimate of the individual benefit and loss. Its sense was brought to the locked code of selfishness. Being political creatures, the citizens place their behavior within the community frame of reference. The sense is in the open-source code of solidarity”, political expert Strahil Deliysky concludes.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov